The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1887-01-19
THE RAM LILA FESTIVAL.
HINDOO CEREMONIES SEEN FROM
AN ELEPHANTS BACK.
Picturesque Sights on a Road i'm In
dia--A Fight With a Bamboo
Giant.

Picturesque Sights on a Road in In
dia--A Fight With a Bamboo
Giant.
A writer in the London Pail Mall Ga
sette thus describes the great religious
festival of the Hindoos, known as Ram
Lila: We were at Fyzabad in Oudh, only /
six miles from one of the greatest strong
holds Of Hindooism, the sacred and an
cient city of Ajudhia whose antiquity
dates from neurological times, some
thousands of years beferesour Christian
era, and whose sanctity as the birth
place of the monkey-god Hunumon, and
also that of the hero Rama, one of the /
sacred line of sun-begotten kings, is not |
surpassed by any other of the cities on
the earth.
We had been invited by the Maharaiah |
Man Singh to go and witness the combat
between Rama and the demon giant Ra-
vana, and when half way to Ajudhia
found one of the Maharaiah's elephants
waiting for us, a splendid fellow, with
his face and ears and trunk painted elab-
orately in brilliant colors. He was COW
cred with a cloth of crimson and green
and purple velvet reaching to within a
few inches of the ground, and heavy
y,
was silver howdah. Having mounted,
we proceeded in state, with native SER
want perched up behind us, holding over
our honored heads huge red umbrella,
and were shortly met by number of ma
tive gentlemen on elephants nearly as
gorgeous as our own, who followed us to
the fete.
The road was thronged with dense
| dc of nd ah N
bright, clean holiday clothes, with a
liberal sprinkling of fakirs among them,
always distinguishable by their absence
of clothes and extreme dirtiness. Ascetics
never have held that cleanliness was next
to godliness. One holy man we passed
had painted his whole body white-his
! coat of paint being his only garment
and who was apparently hanging from
tree Another was standing on his head,
with large fires blazing close round him,
which seemed superhuous with such a
blazing sun overhead Bells were jing
ling, cymbals clashing, tom-tom thump-
ing, all softened and harmonized by the
all -prevadiug hum of the many -throated
crowd. The scene was one to be remem
bered-the great swaying dark masses
of people, their white turbans standing
as thick as ears of corn in wheat field;
the elephants rising above the level of
the crowd and majestically cleaving it
asunder as they strobe silently onward;
the countless domes of mosques and
temples standing out sharp and clear in
the white sunlight against the deep blue
sky; the fiat roofs and the tops of the
walls and balconies covered with swarm
ing crowds of women, brilliant as
kaleidoscope.
And now we were close to the scene of
action, and so tightly wedged were the
people that the elephants could no longer
force passage. Towering twenty feet
or more above all surrounding objects
we saw the huge, uncouth figure of the
giant Ravana, made of bamboo frame
work covered with paper and calico,
being drawn to and fro, with arms out
spread, on little wheeled platform,
while two boys representing Rama and
| his brother attacked him from an ele-
phant with bows and arrows, and crowds
of boys with monkey masks and tails,
representing Hunumon's monkey army,
made onslaughts with fierce shouts and
blows Our elephant was not very stanch,
and when the shouts of battle rose shrill
and savage he would turn short around,
spreading CONSERVATION and nearly de-
molishing a sweetmeat stall that was un-
wisely near his heels. The interest of the
crowd in the combat was intense and
breathless, and when at last the giant was
overthrown all struggled wildly to get a
blow at him, while a mighty roar of
triumph filled the air. mingled with the
firing of guns and the deep trumpeting
of the elephants, who were thoroughly
infected with the excitement of the mo-
ment. In miraculously short time the
giant was torn to shreds and his mangled
remains scattered far and wide with
vengeful energy. Hunumon and their
beloved Rama had won the victory.
This is the one great carnival of the
Hindoos, and when, as sometimes hap
pens, its date comedies with that of the
! great Mohammedan feast of the Mohur-
rum, there is always great risk of COLI
sion.
The Ram Lila has another interest,
connected with natural history, as being
the date on which, according to native
scientific observation, bugs leave off bit
ing. The natives say ''they get weaker
for a month before the Ram Lila, but af.
ter that their mouths are shut"